


Makhaththazul (Persistence)

by lferion



Series: The Grey Book of Erebor [33]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Challenge Response, Choices, Community: fan_flashworks, Dwarves, Endurance - Freeform, Gen, Home, Moss as Metaphor, Stubborn Dwarves, Volcanoes, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9370760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: Moss will persist in growing





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to The Dwarrow Scholar for a most excellent dictionary, now updated. Title means 'that which continues to endure' which is pretty much the definition of persistence. Originally posted on fan flashworks [here](http://fan-flashworks.dreamwidth.org/333177.html) for the challenge 'Choices.'
> 
> Image is from the Earth Sciences Picture of the Day [here.](http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2014/11/wolly-fringe-moss-over-icelands-lava.html)

* * *

Under the feathery moss that grew in thick, silvery mounds lay rivers of sharp new rock, lava that had flowed red in living Dwarven memory. Greybeards they were now, who had felt their halls mumble and grumble and shake as nearby _Magazzagûn-bund_ (head that continuously breaths fire, or fire-top) spewed out molten rock and bitter vapors that poisoned the air and darkened the sky. It had gone on for moons, and there had been no summer that year, nor the next. But they had endured, choosing to stay in the halls they knew, making filters against the fumes that still embittered the air, found wonder and use and new things to delve and shape and make in the challenge Mahal had given them. And presently Yavanna made a new kind of beauty to clothe the earth, grown from that fire.

The moss had use as an herb for poulticing wounds, for seasoning in soup and stew, for chinking cracks in the temporary structures that served while hunting or fishing the frozen lakes and streams or surveying for surface minerals and materials. It was sturdy, and vigorous, and the Dwarves of that place called it _zigilzantur ikhsêgmujd_ (silverhair moss) and prized it highly. And even after the world changed and their people grew more and more scarce, they stayed in their far northern land, and perhaps may be there still. Certainly, the mountain they called Fire-top remains, and grumbles as it warms the springs and streams that come from beneath it, and wooly fringe moss grows there still.


End file.
